Thoughts on '07 game so far.....

[BRADSANDBOTHE]

Maybe I need to vent more often,

My teams went 20-10 last night to eat away at that losing %,

I now stand at a dissappointing 442-467 and only a couple of my teams have an outside chance at making the playoffs.

FWIW, I did have a pretty good '06 ending a respectable 138 games over .500 and with 14 playoff teams and 2 rings out of 29 teams.

I thought I was going to get out from under the spectre of being a bottom feeder, but if this is how my '07 is gonna go, I will be the red headed step child once again.......who am I kidding.....I could win every league and still be the punching bag for this group. :shock: :D

[markp65]

[quote:b2d326da20="Stoney18"]Mark, that's a good formula for MM in 06 but didn't you get a little bored playing the same thing all the time?[/quote:b2d326da20]

I'm embarrassed to admit that the answer is "no." Each season I tend to pick a park and try to explore its possibilities. In previous seasons I dabbled with Petco/pitchers parks with little success. In 2006 I had some early good fortune: my 1st two teams won championships. It quickly became like running a hot streak at the craps table -- playing the same number and letting it ride. I got off on micromanaging and tinkering; trying to figure out which players would excel versus my divisional opponents and why. Perfecting the mechanism. Got obsessed with it. Had a lot of fun.

As for 2007? I'm throwing darts with a blindfold on. I'm working on a similar one-park blueprint/formula but with diminished results.

Ah well. Back to the old drawing board!

[Stoney18]

Great answer Mark. I like the craps analogy.

My first few team in 07 I threw together and it looks like 4 out 5 will make playoffs. Then I started thinking and have a bunch of .500 teams.

I do miss the 06 MM, Ameriquest & Petco parks though.

[Surfer Joe]

Pitching is weak. Extremely weak.

They don't have the extreme parks anymore like Petco and Coors? I didn't look at the ratings; I simply went with Comerica from the beginning.

[JohnnyBlazers]

From my own experience, it is more difficult to put together a winning team as there are no real park advantages as in recent years with Petco, Minute Maid or PNC. There is also greater parity in the card set and are more exposed to HAL's dice rolls as it seems all teams have power and OBP and are playing in neutral stadiums. Seems every league is tilted towards hitting so even if you build a doubles/speed team for RFK for example, you are at a disadvantage on the road. I think you could play RFK (closest thing to Petco) and be successful with a couple of natural HR guys in the lineup. Another key for this year is going with a 5 man rotation. Lots of decent options under 4 million. Maximize your pitching dollars and load up on hitters. After 5 teams and hovering aroung .500, I think I will try this RFK approach

[goredsox33]

I think one of the differences this year is that there are very few , if any DOMINANT SP*'s................


I always like to grab atleast one SP* "ace", and build my staff aroudn him............

Also, every season seems different as far as "how to build a winning team"............. what works oonje year, may not work the next

[goredsox33]

[quote:26bbaf6286="Aray0113"]I agree with you, goredsox, about getting that one ace pitcher ... the question is how to identify WHO that ace is this year!

I've tried Webb (good success), Anibal Sanchez (doing quite well), Johan Santana (doing okay, but the team struggles) and Nate Robertson (his team won 101 games).

My key to this year is to build a strong 5-man bullpen, with at least one innings-eater mop-up man (my favorite - Darren Oliver) to save wear and tear on my other relievers. He makes his teammates better that way.

Also, I'm willing to pay the price for strong defense up the middle; I may play a 3 at 2b if he's got the card, like Utley. Otherwise, I'd rather have a 1 in CF and at SS, because I feel like I can get offense from other places.

Of course, having a top flight CF-1 gives you some offensive punch... unless you love Chris Duffy for some strange reason.[/quote:26bbaf6286]

Im baffled by 2007 at this point....ive built what I though would be good lineups, but they have struggled , even in hitter parks.
Webb was alright for me, but not worth the $ , imo....I think there are better options.......

I do agree that a strong bullpen maybe a huge key for success.......

I think the 2007 game is more similar to 2005 ...

[Phightins'20]

[quote:decb9d72c9="mfsleeze"]He's got a guy playing Brandon Phillips at SS in his division (4e88) and he's got 59 Es[/quote:decb9d72c9]

I don't know if it's the same division but a guy in my league has Phillips at SS w/ 80 errors. We are at game 153.